Why We Write about Sex Abuse

By Lori Falce
TribLive
February 27, 2020

https://triblive.com/opinion/lori-falce-why-we-write-about-sex-abuse/


“But why do you have to put it up there in black and white? Why does there have to be a headline? Why can’t you just let it go?”

“But why do you have to put it up there in black and white? Why does there have to be a headline? Why can’t you just let it go?”

I‘ve had this conversation before.

“Why do you have to write about Jerry Sandusky? It makes Penn State look bad.”

“Why do you have to write about the grand jury report? It makes the Catholic church look bad.”

And now it’s about the Boy Scouts of America, aka Scouts BSA. The national organization declared bankruptcy amid a number of sexual abuse lawsuits.

It is true. I wrote about it. We — journalists — wrote about it. We told people what happened and we continue to tell people about the developments as they unfold. We do not apologize for that. I do not apologize for that.

The idea that we make a powerful organization look bad is misplaced outrage. The problem is not that people are told a bad thing happened. The problem is, a bad thing happened in the first place.

“But things like that have happened forever. This is nothing new.”

That is exactly why it is so important that bad things be placed in a spotlight — because, for years, they grew silently in the dark. They were the mold behind a bathroom wall, growing thick next to an air duct. They were termites eating away at the structure of a house.

“It won’t change anything.”

Oh, but it can. And does.

For years, young women didn’t tell the stories of what happened with Bill Cosby. Today he sits in a cell in the State Correctional Institution in Phoenix, Montgomery County. For years, stories about Harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassment were rumors. Today he is a convicted rapist.

In two years after Sandusky’s arrest, Pennsylvania laws changed and thousands of people were trained in how to spot and report potential abuse. In the years since the first major Pennsylvania church abuse case became known, hundreds of people have come forward with stories that are now believed and not dismissed, leading to healing souls and changes in the Catholic church.

The Scouts will benefit by the same bright lights, and those who benefit most will be the kids who participate in an incredibly valuable program and the generous and caring volunteers who support them.

It is hard to hear that the institutions we care about — the ones that define our communities and our identities — can have dark parts we don’t want to acknowledge. As a Penn Stater, a Catholic and a Scout mom, I don’t just understand. I feel heartsick about it.

But just as deeply, I believe my school, my church and the troop of fun and crazy boys and girls that has become my son’s home away from home are better for that sterilizing light. The sexual scandals were like cancers and pretending there was no tumor would have killed the patient. You can’t cure a disease you refuse to diagnose.

“There’s no reason to keep bringing it up.”

The reason is simple. We cannot let abuse become a story we vaguely recall but don’t remember clearly, because that’s how it happens again.

The kids who go to Penn State for summer camps are safer today than they were before. The kids who go to Catholic churches and schools are not walking halls where abuse is a shameful secret, but something actively patrolled. The kids at a Scout camp are surrounded by people who have been vetted and trained.

Why do we have to write about abuse scandals? To stop abuse from happening.

Lori Falce is a Tribune-Review community engagement editor. You can contact Lori at lfalce@tribweb.com.